


zeus's calling

by andthentheybow



Series: icarus is bullshit, that's why it's called mythology [10]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Clay | Dream-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Dubious Morality, Dubious Mortality, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Minecraft IRL, Mythology References, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, dnf can be platonic or romantic, no beta we die like stupid block men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28582893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthentheybow/pseuds/andthentheybow
Summary: he is both heracles and eurystheus. he puts these labours on himself. he will not stop until they are complete. he will not stop until he himself is irrevocably ruined.or, the twelve relationships dream destroys to become a god (and the one he manages to repair).
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), dream & everyone pretty much
Series: icarus is bullshit, that's why it's called mythology [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057166
Comments: 39
Kudos: 190





	zeus's calling

**Author's Note:**

> be respectful of content creators and their boundaries, this is my interpretation of their personas, you know the drill

he has been cast in the role of zeus.

and heracles.

and eurystheus.

eurystheus, whose name is relatively unknown, and yet whose role is no less important in the grand play of the life of the one viewed as the greatest hero to ever walk the earth. without eurystheus, there are no labours, there is no show.

lucky for dream, he is heracles  _ and _ he is eurystheus. he doles out labours onto himself like casual tasks, like they aren’t make-or-break jobs that could be the end of him. because each labour is nearly the end of him, impossible tasks that he somehow manages to complete, impossible tasks that tear him apart.

twelve labours given by eurystheus. twelve labours completed by heracles. twelve labours to become zeus. twelve relationships that dream destroys to truly become a god. twelve labours to go.

the first labour. the nemean lion. untouchable, unkillable.

heracles kills it.

dream’s nemea is a world created by philza. philza, who he seeks out, who he allows to join his world. and then he tears philza’s family apart in front of him. the untouchable brought low.

he gives lives, when people enter his world. normally he gives three. to philza he gives one. philza is well known for being practically unkillable, his skin tougher than diamond, an angel walking among men.

and he cannot kill philza. not physically. but he can play the strings of the grand violin of the world to the point where philza stabs his son. he can give wilbur enough strength to survive the first hit, for philza to need to strike twice to kill his eldest. he can force philza’s middle child to exile the youngest, and he can drive the youngest to a point near suicide, and he can send l’manberg after philza’s closest ally, looking to kill him.

he cannot kill philza. not physically. but he can work at the lion with unpierceable skin from the inside, absolutely tear him apart, and destroy that relationship. one labour down, eleven to go.

the second labour. the hydra of lerna. so many heads, all of them screaming.

heracles kills it.

he doesn’t do it alone; iolaus helps him, iolaus is the one to come up with the idea of burning the heads after cutting them off, iolaus is the one that he owes the credit to.

it’s credit that heracles rarely gave. who is dream to tell the story any different? who is he to edit the script?

tubbo is his iolaus, and the kid doesn’t even know it. because they’re going after the hydra, the beast with many heads, they’re going after tommy.

tommy, who seems to have a connection to everyone in this whole damn world. every time dream cuts a head off, tommy grows two more, latching on to the very earth itself, refusing to go anywhere. dream plays his little game, dances around his many necks. 

tubbo starts burning the stumps when he plays the spy in manberg, every time he leaves pogtopia to return to schlatt. tubbo starts burning the stumps when techno takes two shots with a rocket launcher and tommy fights him hand-to-hand in the pit. tubbo burns the last stump when dream coerces him into exiling tommy.

heracles hangs out for a little bit. dips his arrows in the hydra’s poison blood. dream taunts tommy, drives him to tower up, up, up. two labours down. ten to go.

the third labour. the ceryneian hind. flighty, took a year to capture.

heracles captures it.

it’s difficult, and it takes a lot of effort. no matter how much dream tries, fundy does not want to let him destroy their relationship. because fundy, deep down, is good. but he’s also so irrevocably broken, damaged, born into a time of war in a land that does not know how to have peace. all it takes is a few side switches, a few stacks of tnt, and fundy is done.

the thing about the hind is that eurystheus wanted heracles to be struck down by artemis. artemis, to whom the hind was sacred, the goddess of the hunt. quackity was artemis when he stood against dream, always hunting for power, hunting for revenge, hunting for  _ something _ , and that stands now, because when dream goads wilbur into blowing up l’manberg, wilbur blows up dream’s relationships with both fundy and quackity, a two for one deal.

heracles encountered artemis after his capture of the hind, and by begging for forgiveness, he earned it.

dream does not beg. 

three labours down, nine to go.

the fourth labour. the erymanthian boar. difficult, dangerous.

heracles captures it.

heracles goes to the teacher, chiron, seeks out advice. dream does not need advice; he is the one who teaches, bestows lessons on the mortals. he knows how to drive the boar into the snow, he knows how to destroy his relationship with technoblade.

it’s easy, because it’s already fragile. he and techno have fought against each other too many times. they’ve fought on the same side many times, too, because they’re more alike than either of them would ever care to admit. that’s the difficult part, that they have the same goals, because why wouldn’t they work together?

it’s easy, because dream knows exactly what to do. he drives the boy that techno sees as a younger brother but would never outright say he cares about to a point near suicide. he almost drives tommy mad, he manipulates him, he destroys everything he cares about, and then he shoves him in techno’s direction.

technoblade lets him into the house, but underlying his calm demeanor is fury. dream has succeeded. heracles has driven the boar into the snow. four labours down. eight to go.

the fifth labour. the augean stables. a single day to do the impossible.

heracles cleans them.

they are the stables of a thousand cattle that haven’t been cleaned in thirty years, and heracles is given a single day. he diverts the rivers alpheus and peneus and in one fell swoop he washes it all away.

his relationship with karl is largely dependent on quackity and sapnap; they are friends, but when dream shoves quackity and sapnap away, karl goes, too. karl joins them in their new nation and he leaves dream behind and he doesn’t look back once. that’s just the way dream likes it.

(the rest of the story goes: augeas promised one-tenth of his cattle if heracles did it in a day, and heracles did. augeas refused to pay, heracles took him to court, augeas banished him; heracles killed augeas.

dream does not kill quackity and sapnap. but the cleansing of the stables has a price, and the price comes with him further destroying his relationships with these two.)

five labours down, seven to go.

the sixth labour. the stymphalian birds. feathers razor sharp, a whole flock of them.

heracles kills them.

using the cloak from the skin of the nemean lion and the arrows dipped in the poisonous blood of the hydra of lerna, heracles kills the flock of birds. he uses the cloak as a shield and the arrows as his weapons.

and by taunting niki by destroying the boys she sees as her family, he destroys his relationship with her, too. they were never close; she disliked him and his need for power and control, and she wasn’t afraid to show it. but he used the destruction of phil’s family against her; she was an honorary member, and seeing the arrows dipped in tommy’s blood was enough to make her hate him.

just the way he likes it. six labours down, six to go.

the seventh labour. the cretan bull. father of the minotaur, furious.

heracles captures it.

minos offers him aid, and he declines. he sneaks up behind the bull from behind and throttles it, stops before he can kill it, drags it back to eurystheus. it’s all too easy.

it’s all too easy to destroy his relationship with wilbur. wilbur, like the bull, is furious, and his fury carries him. it carries him directly to dream, who offers him stacks of tnt when he asks, all too willing to provide. he and wilbur have a common goal; they want manberg destroyed. if they can’t have it, no one can.

eurystheus wanted to sacrifice the bull to hera. hera, who is seeking unjust vengeance against heracles, who is at the bottom of all of this. hera rejects the sacrifice.

(schlatt has been playing the role of hera since he arrived here; scorned, trying to kill those who have done nothing to hurt him. he could be a god if he really tried. he doesn’t try.)

dream calls in phil, counting on wilbur’s shame when the deed is done. it’s the right choice; wilbur is killed. his ghost can only remember the happy memories, or at least acts that way. and wilbur had no happy memories with dream. seven labours down. five to go.

the eighth labour. diomedes’s mares. fire-breathing, feasting on human flesh.

heracles captures them.

there are so many versions of this story that even heracles loses track of them. one thing is certain; human flesh is what calms the mares down. there were four of them, dangerous, deadly, things of power and grace, serving as a reminder that heracles was not the only powerful mortal in the world who could bathe in the blood of his enemies.

bad is dream’s reminder. bad, who is soft and kind and good and can turn absolutely deadly in a mere instant. bad, a demon, whose infinite lives make him a god to rival the status of dream. infinite lives, were it not for skeppy; as long as skeppy lives, bad lives. bad is diomedes and his friends are his mares, and when dream goes after them, bad goes after dream.

nothing really happens. a few unspoken threats, here and there, toward sam and antfrost and skeppy. it’s enough to make bad turn his back on dream, and his badlands follow. bad wants chaos, and he knows dream’s death will cause chaos.

dream cannot be killed. he is no king, fed to his own horses. he takes the one person that would never leave his side and turns him against him in a single day. eight labours down, four to go.

the ninth labour. the girdle of hippolyta. would have been easy, if not for outside meddling.

heracles steals it.

hera is amongst the amazons, whispering about how heracles means to kill their leader. hippolyta would have given the belt willingly, had it not been for hera, and heracles is chased out of their land with the girdle in hand after killing their betrayed queen.

dream gives eret their crown as the result of a deal. eret is the king of a land that will always be dream’s, and dream needs to make sure they know it.

he takes the crown away.

he shatters that relationship the second he does, and even though he gives the crown back, he can see the way that eret looks at him. he can see the way that eret begins doing things on their own, moves away from dream, makes the castle  _ theirs _ . they move away from dream’s leadership, no longer terrified of losing their crown, because they know they’ve already lost it.

perfect, then, dream thinks. nine labours down. three to go.

the tenth labour. geryon’s cattle. normal cattle. not a normal owner.

heracles captures them.

sapnap is not the cattle. sapnap is orthrus, the two-headed guard dog. he is eurytion, the herdsman. he is geryon, the three-bodied giant to whom the cattle belong. he is dream’s best friend, and he is not going to let dream go that easily.

heracles kills orthrus, and eurytion, and geryon, too. dream doesn’t kill sapnap, but he comes damn close to it, and when he yells about the discs, he knows sapnap can hear him.

and sapnap is furious. because dream tells him that he’s been using him as a weapon this whole fucking time, he’s been using sapnap and george for his own bidding, and sapnap is furious. they both know it’s a lie, they both know dream loves sapnap and george as much as they love him, but dream is trying to shatter this relationship. he is going to become a god, and he is going to do whatever it takes to get there. only then can he protect his world. only then can he protect his friends.

sapnap knows this, and he still fights dream every step of the way, fire burning in his eyes. dream burns down his tower. dream forces him to release mars. dream tells him that he and george do not matter. those are the moments that sapnap’s faith in him breaks. three lives, and all that.

ten labours down. two to go.

the eleventh labour. the golden apples of the hesperides. impossible to get to, impossible to take.

heracles takes them.

eurystheus should really stop underestimating him at this point. dream should stop thinking he won’t do anything to become a god. he’ll destroy every relationship if he has to, including his relationship with tubbo. tubbo, who could have been his younger brother in a different world.

in one version of the story, heracles goes to atlas and holds up the world while atlas retrieves the apples. in another, he kills the dragon ladon, who was guarding the apples.

there is no dragon to kill in this world, no dragon other than dream. normally technoblade plays the role of atlas, but today it is tubbo, holding the world on his shoulders, the child president. dream goes to him and offers him a deal for the freedom of l’manberg.

atlas offers to deliver the apples. heracles knows he will never return, and tricks atlas into taking back the world.

tubbo does not offer dream anything. tubbo doesn’t want to banish tommy, but he wants to do what’s best for his nation. dream goads him into the exile, tricks him, manipulates him, and he knows that tubbo will never forgive him. dream doesn’t even give him the chance to give up the world; it’s been on the kid’s shoulders this whole time. eleven labours down.

one to go.

the twelfth labour. cerberus. three-headed dog of the underworld.

heracles-

it’s not the dog that’s the hard part. the dog is easy- heracles goes to hades, asks permission to take the dog, and hades agrees, on the condition that no weapons are used. no, getting the dog is easy- it’s getting to the underworld that’s the hard part.

destroying the final relationship is easy, in the end. it’s working himself up to that point that’s dream’s problem. because george holds a special place in his heart, and he does not want to shatter this last final bond tethering him to the mortal world.

-captures it.

athena and hermes help heracles to the underworld. athena and hermes, george and tommy. he has already destroyed his relationship with tommy, and he doubts he’ll ever get that back. but george-

unlike sapnap, who fought him every step of the way, george knows what dream is trying to do, and george knows what dream has to do to get there. he knows that dream is trying to become a god, trying to shatter every last connection to the mortal realm that he has.

and george knows that dream is already a god. he didn’t need to tear his heart into pieces to get there. but once dream sets his heart on something, he doesn’t stop until he has it. that’s a lesson george has learned all too well.

so george leads dream to the underworld. george makes it easy for dream; so, so,  _ easy _ to destroy their relationship.

_ just say it. say you hate me _ .

what that really means: just do it. destroy the last cord tying you to this world. do it.

and dream does.

twelve labours down.

  
  
  


heracles becomes a god, but at what price?

heracles marries hebe, the goddess of youth. but hebe was also worshipped as the goddess of forgiveness and mercy, and george is nothing if not forgiving. dream becomes a god, they run the whole show, and he stands in the shadows as the olympians rise up against him to protect tommy and tubbo.

and later, in the dead of night, george finds him. and george reaches out and lifts up his mask and says  _ i know why you did it _ and it is not quite forgiveness, not yet, but it is something akin to mercy.

dream could never destroy their relationship, no matter what he did. george knew this, but he let them both pretend, so that dream could play god.

now heracles comes home, and hebe is waiting, and they can both go off into the sky and be happy together. and the world below them sighs and marvels at the labours that have been completed, all of them impossible tasks.

(in the end, the twelfth labour was the hardest and the easiest. the dog would be returned to the underworld, and dream and george’s relationship would be repaired. but destroying something like that, even for a little bit-

it is said that hebe could restore youth. george restores their relationship with a single hug and a murmur of forgiveness. dream has always been a god, and when he isn’t paying attention, george begins restoring the relationships he tore apart. he can’t do it alone. maybe someday.

eurystheus stops doling out labours. heracles decides to rest. dream comes home.)

  
  
  


none to go.

( _ the play has been performed; applaud! _ )

**Author's Note:**

> comments/kudos/etc are always appreciated! :) 
> 
> [ twitter ](https://www.twitter.com/andthentheybow)
> 
> [ tumblr ](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/andthentheybow)


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